Rround The World

Ok, so you have arrived in China, you have a hit list of places to visit and now you need to work out the best way to travel to all those great places. When it comes to how to travel inside China, your choices are almost unlimited. You can travel by plane, train, car, bus, the back of a truck (did that in Inner Mongolia), walking, biking, horse, camel and I could go on.

Hands down the best way to travel in China if you have the time is by train. I simply cannot emphasise enough just how good trains are. Here is a basic cut down list (the full list would be at least 2-3 pages) of why trains are so good for travelling in China

-Comfortable. Your choice range from hard and soft seats to hard and soft sleepers and even deluxe sleepers on some trains. Just imagine travelling through the heart land of China in the way to see a magnificent world heritage sight while lying stretched out on your back enjoying the view outside.

Most trains have a restaurant car that services good meals. Attendants regularly go up and down the train selling everything from hot meals to toys. You can get of at each station to stretch, buy food from platform vendors and have quick one if you are a smoker. You can even smoke on the train at each end of the carriage. Try doing that on an airplane.

The toilets (essential features of travel) are hygienic and cleaned regularly, comfortable and queues are rarely if ever a problem.

-Cheap. Train tickets are normally at least twice as cheap as plane tickets.

-Cultural experience. Planes and airports are the same world over where as travelling by train in China is a unique cultural experience, a great way to meet local Chinese and make friends. The locals will play cards with you, exchange photos, share food, tell you about China, invite you back home for dinner and in general make the trip a delight.

-Efficient. The Chinese are experts at train travel and have built up a train system second to none. Every major location in China can be reached by trains that leave at least daily and are extremely reliable and fast.

-Scenery. You can see so much of China without even leaving the train. Going from Harbin in the north to Shenzhen in the south, you can see how the climate, vegetation, weather and even culture changes over the distance.

-Safe. Planes occasionally fall out of the sky. Trains on the other hand never blow up, explode, over take the run way or experience any of the numerous calamities that can befall planes. Every train carries at least 2-3 members of the police force and numerous carriage attendants who make sure passengers are safe and protected.

-Environmentally friendly. Face it. Travel is not the most environmentally friendly practice and even the famous Lonely Planet travel guide founders admit this. So do your bit to save the planet and ravel by trains which have a much lower carbon footprint than planes.

-Convenience. Most train stations, Beijing being a great example, are in or close to the center of the city and easily accessible by buses, subways and taxis. Airports on the other hand tend to be out side city limits and not easy to get to. No annoying security and queues that take ages. Travel is often over night so you catch the train in the evening, sleep and arrive refreshed the next day.

To illustrate just how good train travel is, I’ll give you an example of my last trip from Beijing to Xian. Spent all day seeing the sights, had a relaxed evening meal of beef noodles then caught the 9:20pm from Beijing West train station. The trip from the hotel to the train station took 25 minutes maximum. Arrived just 20 minutes before the train left which was plenty of time. Boarded the train 10 minutes early, found my bed (hard sleeper) and stowed my gear. Lights went of around an hour after the train started and went to sleep. Arrived the next morning at 8:20am 11 hours later at the Xian train station which was a quick taxi ride from my hotel.

Now if I flew from Beijing to Xian I would have left my hotel at a similar time. Taken at least an hour to arrive at the airport. Would need to be at the airport at least an hour in advance. Land in Xian at some god forsaken hour of the morning. Disembark, find my luggage, stagger out of the airport to the taxi rank, haggle with the driver who’d be asking for 3-4 times the going rate. Finally arrive at the hotel, recover, have breakfast and be ready to see the sights by around 8:20am.

Tags: around the world, travel
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Some Thoughts And Guidance

This short article will not address the practical issues of travel in China but will instead look at the mental preparation that can get you through the difficult moment and therefore make your journey more enjoyable

Chinese culture is very different from our own. That makes it interesting but also produces opportunities for discord.

Take, for instance, the seemingly harmless matter of laughter. In China, laughter can be an expression of several emotions for which we would find it wholly inappropriate:
to show a lack of understanding;
to help control one’s anger; or
to distance oneself from a tragic situation.

How are you going to feel if when complaining to the hotel receptionist you don’t get the assurance that you seek but a round of giggles from her and her colleagues?

Probably there is some lack of understanding. You might have avoided this in the first place by keeping your choice of words simple. Try ‘Bathroom, water’ rather than a long and detailed explanation with lots of plumbing terminology.

The essential trick here though is to stay calm. An angry reaction from you degenerates quickly into a tense standoff. A chuckle and another attempt might be hard to muster – but is definitely the way forward.

Be clear, Stay calm. It will come with practice and gets easier the more that you do understand about the culture, so read what you can in advance and ask your guide about any situations that intrigue or confuse you. Choosing A Style Of Travel

Your style of travel is worthy of careful consideration. It is probably the most significant factor in determining your state of mind during the trip and your memories thereafter.

Too much adventure can be scary; too little can be boring. Too much organised time can be restrictive; too little can feel chaotic

You have to know where you stand on these issues as well as to form a clear impression of what is on offer. If in doubt, ask.

Most travellers can actually enjoy a range of styles so long as the accommodation is clean, the food is filling and things run smoothly. They can accept a certain loss of freedom in payment for the ease that small-group travel brings

If you have very special requirements then you will almost certainly find that a tailor-made trip is the way to go.

A tailor-made trip offers you many more choices. On the downside, this style of travel costs more and does not allow for the same social interaction, unless, of course, your tailor-made trip is for your own small group. Choosing A Route In China

Choosing a route through China can provide some coherence to your itinerary. The Silk Roads are the most obvious routes but there are many other trading trails and other itineraries to be researched and retraced if that is your interest.

Many good routes can be found by browsing travel literature. Journeys that once took months to complete can now be managed in a matter of weeks and with considerably more comfort.

Remember that China is huge and be realistic about what you can achieve within your time and budget. It may be better to complete a part of a larger journey at leisure than to struggle to complete the whole.

It is up to you just how faithfully you stick to the original route. It may be that you cannot follow it precisely any more, or it may be that you only want the route as a loose guide to focus your attentions. Choosing A Theme In China

A theme can be a much broader concept than a route. You can pretty much choose a theme and how to apply it so the structure that it provides is very much up to you.

A theme is nevertheless a good way of keeping the vastness of China manageable. By directing your searches towards the one topic you eliminate much of the noise and can keep a clearer picture of potential programs.

Picking a theme must be a personal issue. You probably already have some inspiration in that you have arrived here. Further inspiration can be found in books about China and websites including other people’s travel blogs.

Be prepared to change your theme as your research leads you down other avenues. Half of the fun is this wandering even before you leave the front door. Mental Preparation For Travel In China

Preparation begins with knowledge. The more you research your options in China the more confident you will feel in the arrangements that you make. Confidence will help considerably when things do not go as planned.

Knowledge includes knowledge of the language. Learning at least a smattering of Putonghua (Mandarin) will make the good days better and could save a bad one from getting worse.

Think your way through your journey and envisage the things that could go wrong. This kind of preparation ensures that you will not panic when something does go wrong even when, invariably, the thing that does go wrong is not one of the things you considered. Practical Preparation For Travel In China

Almost all travellers coming to China need a visa. You will need to check the latest situation for your nationality and place of application. The rules do change and can be applied differently.

You could come by boat or train but most short-term visitors will fly. Return tickets are the cheapest but you could consider an open-jaw ticket if that saves you returning to your start-point unnecessarily.

This space is too small to elaborate on packing. Suffice it to say that you will need to carry your luggage often so keep that light.

Money is no longer a big issue in China. Always have alternatives available. A mix of cash and cards, and perhaps some emergency traveller’s cheques should see you through.

Consider health and general travel insurance to cover the unexpected. Check what each policy covers; you generally get what you pay for so don’t sacrifice too much in favour of a bargain.

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Despite China’s vast size and status as a third-world country, its travel network is comprehensive, affordable and surprisingly efficient, although some options are better than others. Long-distance travel is best provided by trains and airlines, whereas buses and taxes are the most common local travel method.

Train

All things considered, trains are probably the best way to travel long distances in China.

Trains are neither as comfortable nor as quick as air travel, but they are far cheaper and offer the traveler a widow view of the Chinese countryside that air travel cannot compete with. China’s “iron roosters” (a local nickname that the Chinese use to refer to their locomotives) may not offer the comforts of Amtrack or Eurrail, but the sleeper cars are comfortable and convenient, and the dining cars serve surprisingly tasty Chinese cuisine. The centerpiece of the Chinese railway system is the Tibetan Railway, which passes straight through the heart of the Himalayas at altitudes of up to 5,000 meters (15,000 feet). It is important to remember that you cannot buy round-trip train tickets at Chinese train stations; if you plan on a quick return, buy the return ticket at the destination train station as soon as you arrive.

Air

China’s air travel network is fairly comprehensive and growing rapidly, and its poor safety record of the late 1980s is now a thing of the past. Cross-country one-way airfares of slightly less than US$200 per person are typical, although package tours commonly offer cheaper fares. A valid (mainland) Chinese visa is required to travel from Hong Kong to anywhere in mainland China.

Bus

Bus travel is probably the least attractive means of travel in China.

Bus fares are about the same as train fares, travel times are only a bit faster, there is no dining car and stops are relatively infrequent. The advantages of bus travel are that buses travel to destinations not served by train, and bus tickets can usually be obtained during holidays even when train tickets are unavailable. Sleeper buses are also quite common, although they are far less comfortable than sleeper trains.

Local Travel

Shanghai and Hong Kong have well-developed local metro systems, and several other Chinese cities have less extensive systems. Consequently, outside of Shanghai and Hong Kong, you are likely going to require an alternative means of local travel. Local buses are crowded and uncomfortable. Taxis are cheap by Western standards, but few taxi drivers speak English, and rip-offs are not uncommon. All things considered, you best bet will probably be to catch a taxi outside of an international hotel after having the hotel attendant write down your destination in Chinese.

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Nowadays, more and more foreigners come to China, and many of them are the first time to travel in China. Here are some suggestions for them to prepare the trip.

For many business travelers to Shanghai, I would suggest to take a weekend to visit Beijing. Shanghai is the largest commercial city in China, but it is not a typical city that represents China. If you want to claim you’ve really been to China, you should plan a short trip to Beijing, and visit the Forbidden City, visit the Great Wall, and visit some Royal Gardens. Even you don’t go to these famous places,it is also a good idea to experience the wide streets and the narrow Hutong.

If you know some simple Chinese words, it will make you look better and friendlier to local people, which make your trip more enjoyable.

If foreigners wish to directly use the phone numbers assigned by their domestic telecommunication operators, they should initialize international roaming service with their local provider before their entry to China. Foreigners shall initialize international roaming services of their mobile phone numbers with their domestic mobile telecommunication operators. Additionally, your domestic mobile telecommunication operator shall sign the agreement on international roaming services with China Mobile. Your international roaming service charges will be collected according to the applicable charging rates as specified by your domestic mobile telecommunication operator. If foreigners enter China with their domestic mobile phones, they can buy SIM phone cards and pre-paid phone cards in Shanghai or Beijing to enjoy all the businesses and services provided by China Mobile. If your domestic operator and China Mobile haven’t signed the roaming agreement, the international roaming service will be unavailable through your domestic phone number.

There are many differences between cities in China and the western cities. You may find the traffic rule different (at least the way people follow the rules), the language is different, and many aspects of everyday life are different. Don’t worry. Just relax. It is not necessary to always figure out which way is right and which way is wrong. Just relax, and enjoy the difference. It is just because of the difference that you travel, isn’t it?

Tags: around the world, travel
Posted in Travel in China | No Comments »

Despite China’s vast size and status as a third-world country, its travel network is comprehensive, affordable and surprisingly efficient, although some options are better than others. Long-distance travel is best provided by trains and airlines, whereas buses and taxes are the most common local travel method.

Train

All things considered, trains are probably the best way to travel long distances in China.

Trains are neither as comfortable nor as quick as air travel, but they are far cheaper and offer the traveler a widow view of the Chinese countryside that air travel cannot compete with. China’s “iron roosters” (a local nickname that the Chinese use to refer to their locomotives) may not offer the comforts of Amtrack or Eurrail, but the sleeper cars are comfortable and convenient, and the dining cars serve surprisingly tasty Chinese cuisine. The centerpiece of the Chinese railway system is the Tibetan Railway, which passes straight through the heart of the Himalayas at altitudes of up to 5,000 meters (15,000 feet). It is important to remember that you cannot buy round-trip train tickets at Chinese train stations; if you plan on a quick return, buy the return ticket at the destination train station as soon as you arrive.

Air

China’s air travel network is fairly comprehensive and growing rapidly, and its poor safety record of the late 1980s is now a thing of the past. Cross-country one-way airfares of slightly less than US$200 per person are typical, although package tours commonly offer cheaper fares. A valid (mainland) Chinese visa is required to travel from Hong Kong to anywhere in mainland China.

Bus

Bus travel is probably the least attractive means of travel in China.

Bus fares are about the same as train fares, travel times are only a bit faster, there is no dining car and stops are relatively infrequent. The advantages of bus travel are that buses travel to destinations not served by train, and bus tickets can usually be obtained during holidays even when train tickets are unavailable. Sleeper buses are also quite common, although they are far less comfortable than sleeper trains.

Local Travel

Shanghai and Hong Kong have well-developed local metro systems, and several other Chinese cities have less extensive systems. Consequently, outside of Shanghai and Hong Kong, you are likely going to require an alternative means of local travel. Local buses are crowded and uncomfortable. Taxis are cheap by Western standards, but few taxi drivers speak English, and rip-offs are not uncommon. All things considered, you best bet will probably be to catch a taxi outside of an international hotel after having the hotel attendant write down your destination in Chinese.

Tags: around the world, travel
Posted in Travel in China | No Comments »